Make sure you're covered before you hit the piste

Before you hit the slopes this ski season, make sure that your travel insurance offers the right level of protection as all too often skiers buying travel insurance through travel agents don’t have adequate cover.

According to our estimates almost 380,000 skiers could be travelling with incorrect insurance policies. This is because the sale of travel insurance through high street travel agents as part of a holiday package is not regulated, unlike the rest of the insurance industry, so it’s all too easy for you to be mis-sold an insurance policy.

According to data from the Ski Club of Great Britain and analysts at market research firm Mintel around 1.3 million people jetted off on a snowy holiday last winter and nearly half (48%) of these book ski holiday through their travel agent.

Taking this into consideration as well as our research, which found that six out of ten travellers arrange cover as part of the package through travel agents, it means that 374,400 people could be hitting the slopes without adequate insurance.

When buying insurance as part of a package through a high-street agent, you are often told to simply tick a box without properly understanding what you’re paying for, or what the terms and conditions and exemptions are.

For example, many travel agents neglect to tell customers that pre-existing medical conditions need to be declared.  Whilst this will be specified in the policy ‘small print’ most people don’t look until it is too late.

The insurance industry is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to ensure you’re getting proper service and good value for money.  But the sale of insurance through travel agents is more of an unregulated free-for-all because it is regarded as being part of a holiday package, rather than a standalone transaction. Also if you buy insurance through agents you’ll have no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service if things go wrong.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) now has in place compulsory exams for all agents wanting to sell insurance, yet the policies they sell are often limited in scope and can offer poor value for money.

According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, travel insurance is the third most complained about sector and that a significant proportion of complaints cannot be dealt with because they relate to insurance sales through unregulated intermediaries such as travel firms.

The Association of British Insurers has repeatedly called on the Financial Services Authority to expand the scope of regulation to include insurance sold as part of a holiday package.  This now subject to a review by HM Treasury.